


where did we come from?

by poppinparties



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (possibly), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Dialogue Heavy, Existential Crisis, One Shot, Panic Attacks, Papyrus (Undertale) Knows More Than He Lets On, Parent W. D. Gaster, Sad Papyrus (Undertale), Sad Sans (Undertale), The Void
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:15:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22456330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppinparties/pseuds/poppinparties
Summary: Papyrus asks Sans a question he doesn't know the answer to, that perhaps neither of them wants to know the answer to. And it all started with a grey door in Waterfall.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	where did we come from?

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a short one-shot that i wrote to help get the creative juices flowing. i ended up quite liking it, though, and i'll hope you do too.

"Sans?"

"yeah, bro?"

"...Where did we come from?"

Sans paused, still bent over with his head in the fridge, hand halfway towards his bottle of ketchup as he repeated the question in his mind. It was a good question, and yet not one Sans had ever given much thought to. What did it matter where he had come from, or what he was meant to do? Sans was content to exist, to simply _be_ , and here he was, doing just that.

And yet, now that Papyrus mentioned it... 

Where _did_ they come from?

"heh." Sans shrugged with his signature easygoing grin as he took out the ketchup bottle, closing the fridge door with a bump of his hip. "to be honest, paps, i have no idea, either. sorry."

"...Isn't that _weird,_ though?"

Another very, very good question. Yes, it _was_ weird. Both the skeleton brothers knew nothing of their lives before arriving in Snowdin. None of the residents had known who they were or how they had gotten there. And yet, the small house on the edge of town had been in their names, and who could argue with that, as long as they paid their bills?

Yet again, Sans shrugged. "not that weird, really. so we got amnesia somehow. big deal. i'm happy now, so what does the past matter?" he winked. "you're the only piece of my past i need, paps."

Papyrus, sitting in deep thought at the kitchen table, remained silent. It was starting to unnerve Sans. Just a little. "hey, papyrus. what's brought this on, anyway? you're not usually this philosophical."

"Erm, well... oh, I don't know if you want to hear this, brother. It'll sound ridiculous..."

"nonsense. i love ridiculous." That earned him a smile from his brother. Victory for Sans.

"Well, in that case..." Papyrus cleared his nonexistant throat before beginning. "I was on my way to Undyne's today for our training. I didn't feel like taking the boat, so I decided to walk through Waterfall. And then, well, I... I found a door."

Now this piqued Sans' interest. "a door. where?"

"You know that room with the crystallised cheese block?"

"it was there?"

"Well, no, actually... like I said, it doesn't make any sense, but... when I walked out of that room, I didn't enter the room that's normally after it. Instead I entered this kind of, corridor I guess? All I know is that it isn't usually there. And that's where the door was."

OK, this was not where Sans was expecting this conversation to go. This was freaky. This was abnormal. This was, for some reason, making him intensely uncomfortable. He fidgeted in his seat, hoping his bones wouldn't start rattling. "so this door." he attempted to sound calm. "what did it look like?"

Papyrus gave him a concerned glance, his eyelights glowing a faint worried cyan. "I'm making you uncomfortable, brother. I should stop - "

"tell me about the door, papyrus."

Because as much as it was making his metaphorical skin crawl, he needed to know what the _hell_ this meant.

"It was... a door? Just a boring, grey door. Nothing special about it. Except, you know, for the fact that it _wasn't supposed to be there."_ Papyrus looked disgruntled. The only things allowed to mess with spacetime were him and Sans. Anything else doing it was just annoying. "So, of course, I thought to myself 'I, future Royal Guardsman Papyrus, should prove my responsibility and levelheadedness and go tell Undyne about this at once!'"

"so that's what you did?"

"No. The Great and Curious Papyrus decided to investigate the door himself." Yeah, that sounded about right. "I tried the handle, and it wasn't locked. I could just go right on through. So I did. And I ended up in this... room." He glanced up at Sans again, his keen eyes taking immediate notice of his brother's twitching and fidgeting. "Seriously, Sans. I think we should leave it there for now."

"no. tell me. what was the room like?"

"Well, it was... different. It wasn't like a cavern room at all. It was more like an indoor room. It was small, and completely white, and so quiet... there was no music playing at all. I couldn't even hear Waterfall. But... that's not even the weirdest part."

"which was?"

"Sans, there... there was somebody already in there."

Sans' spine felt like a rod of ice. He had to swallow before asking Papyrus to continue. "Who." Papyrus flinched slightly as his brother spoke in harsh Common instead of his font, something he rarely ever did.

"W-well, that's the thing. I don't know who. I walked up to them, and they just looked right through me, like they didn't even see me. I tried to touch them, and my hand... it just went straight through. Then I... the thoroughly disturbed Papyrus... said "H-hello?" And then they finally seemed to see me. They looked surprised. But then they... they _smiled_ at me. As though they were happy to see me. And then they disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Sans repeated, still in that biting Common. "Like... like they teleported?" Sans wasn't sure why, but the idea of sharing a power he'd thought was unique to him with whatever _this_ was, scared him. And yet... it also felt right.

"Yeah. Exactly like... well. What you do." Papyrus looked as nervous as Sans felt. He was pulling at his scarf and chewing on his lower teeth like one would bite their lip. "It, well... I'll admit it frightened me a little. So I left the room. But as soon as I closed the door behind me, it was gone. I didn't even see it happen. Then as soon as I left that corridor... _it_ disappeared too. It was like nothing I'd just seen had ever even existed at all." His words, hollow with fear and confusion, felt like a punch directly in Sans' soul.

"And what does this have to do with us?" He asked coldly, already regretting it when he saw how it made Papyrus flinch. But he couldn't help it. This wasn't right, nothing about this was right or normal or OK... and yet it all felt correct.

_Familiar._

"Sans, this mysterious person... it... they were a skeleton, too. And they... they kinda looked like us."

A lot of words were running through Sans' mind right now.

_amnesia_

_nonexistance_

_death_

_void_

_gone_

_disappear_

_disappear_

_disappear_

_disappear_

_disappear_

_disappear_

_disappear_

_disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear disappear di_

Someone was hugging him. When Sans came back to earth, he realised that it was Papyrus. Of course. Who else could it possibly be? 

The next thing he realised was that both he and Papyrus were kneeling on the kitchen floor and crying. That was probably his fault. Whoops.

"Sans, I'm sorry!" Papyrus sobbed, clenching his brother tightly enough to practically dust him. "I didn't mean it, I didn't mean to upset you so much...! Please forgive me, brother!"

"...heh." Sans chuckled, pulling back and wiping away some of his brother's tears with his thumb. "how can i forgive when i'm not even mad?" To his relief, Papyrus smiled, and he smiled back, before helping his much taller brother back to his feet. "you feel better now, buddy?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I really do." Papyrus frowned. "I'm just... confused?? Like, I know this has something to do with us, or with our past, or something. Maybe we knew that person, or that room, or... something. It feels right, you know? I just... don't get why. Or how. Or..."

"or who or when or what?" Sans found he had the energy to tease again. This pleased him immensely.

"I mean... yeah???"

Sans laughed. Papyrus glared. But he was still smiling.

"We'll find out one day... won't we, Sans?"

"...yeah, bro. yeah. we will. we'll make it happen. you know what they say. put two boneheads together and they can do anything."

"Who says that?"

"they. duh."

Papyrus groaned in frustration as he facepalmed. Sans grinned. Back to normal already. Thank _god_. He'd had enough philosphical debates and crazy stories about ghostly potential relatives for one day.

Still, though.

Sans wondered.

_Where did we come from..._

_...And what are we supposed to do now?_

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and especially comments are much appreciated! please let me know what you thought.


End file.
